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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Ex  Lihris 

SIR  MICHAEL  SADLER 

ACQUIRED  1948 

WITH  THE  HELP  OF  ALUMNI  OF  THE 

SCHOOL  OF  EDUCATION 


B 


THOUGHTS  FOR 
TEACHERS  OF  THE  BIBLE 


BY 


J.  ARMITAGE  ROBINSON,  D.D. 


DEAN    OF    WELLS 


LONGMANS,    GREEN    AND   CO, 
39   PATERNOSTER  ROW,   LONDON 

FOURTH  AVEifUE  &  30th  STUEBT  NEW  YORK 
BOMBAY,  CALCUTTA,  A>fD  MADRAS 

PRICE    SIXPENCE    NET    IN    PAPER 
AND    ONE    SHILLING    NET    IN    CLOTH 


Jl 


fm  ,va»?^aL'- PEYrr-'/ifcr 


?'H'«»^-'f-;j;:t   -      -      ■'■     .*  '.^.-x^   .  :■  w 


J^ichael  Ernest  Sadler 

Universltu  College-^ 

Oxford 


THOUGHTS   FOR 
TEACHERS   OF   THE   BIBLE 


BY   THE   SAME   AUTHOR 


THE    STUDY  OF   THE   GOSPELS 
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SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  THE  ATHANASIAN  CREED 

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THE  HISTORICAL  CHARACTER  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL 

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THE  ADVENT  HOPE  IN  ST.  PAUL'S  EPISTLES 

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SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  INSPIRATION 

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LONGMANS,     GREEN    AND    CO. 

39   PATERNOSTER   ROW,    LONDON 

FOURTH    AVEN'UF.   AND  30TH    STREET,    NEW  YORK 
BOMBAY,    CALCUTTA,    AND    MADRAS 


THOUGHTS  FOR 
TEACHERS  OF  THE  BIBLE 


BY 


J.  ARMITAGE   ROBINSON,  D.D. 

DEAN   OF   WELLS 


LONGMANS,     GREEN     AND     CO. 
39    PATERNOSTER    ROW,    LONDON 

FOURTH  AVENUE  &  30TH  STREET,  NEW  YORK 

BOMBAY,   CALCUTTA,   AND   MADRAS 

I9I4 


1\  S6t. 


PREFACE 

THE  flood  of  new  light  which  has  been 
thrown  on  the  origin  and  history  of  the 
several  books  of  Holy  Scripture  has  made  the 
Bible  far  more  interesting  and  more  instructive, 
both  from  the  literary  and  from  the  religious 
point  of  view.  But  this  fresh  access  of  know- 
ledge has  created  serious  difficulties  for  the 
preacher  in  the  pulpit  and  for  the  teacher  in  the 
class-room.  The  preacher  has  an  unfair  advan- 
tage over  the  teacher  in  that  he  can  select  his 
topic  and  is  exempt  from  the  danger  of  questions. 
The  teacher,  on  the  other  hand,  has  to  follow  a 
prescribed  course,  and  children's  questions  are 
often  unexpectedly  embarrassing.  I  cannot 
refrain  from  recording  here  an  example  of  a 
really  perplexing  question,  which  will  appeal  to 
the  heart  of  a  good  teacher.  One  of  my  missionary 
brothers  many  years  ago  bought  out  of  slavery 
a  little  negro  boy  for  a  bag  of  salt,  and  tried  to 
teach  him  the  elements  of  Christianity.  His 
English  was  of  necessity  somewhat  rudimentary. 
'  Up  '  was  the  word  he  used  for  God,  and  '  buzz- 
buzz  '  was  the  mosquito,  whom  we  have  since 

5 

629334 


6  Preface 

learned  to  fight  as  a  most  deadly  foe.  One  day 
the  little  lad  propounded  the  question  :  '  If  Up 
made  me,  and  Up  made  the  buzz-buzz,  then 
why  the  buzz-buzz  eat  me  ? '  A  philosopher 
would  be  puzzled  if  he  were  called  on  suddenly 
to  give  the  answer,  as  the  question  was  put,  in 
words  of  one  syllable.  Incidentally  the  question 
may  serve  to  remind  us  that  not  all  the  diffi- 
culties of  religious  teaching  are  to  be  set  to  the 
account  of  Biblical  criticism. 

I  hope  this  little  book  may  be  of  service  to 
teachers,  though  it  does  not  even  touch  upon  the 
problem  of  how  the  Bible  should  be  taught  to 
children  ;  nor  does  it  attempt  to  forestall  the 
enquiries  which  a  good  and  sympathetic  teacher 
is  certain  to  evoke.  In  these  matters  teachers 
must  help  teachers.  What  I  have  attempted  to 
do  is  to  set  out  plainly  some  broad  principles, 
the  recognition  of  which  may  help  the  faith  and 
understanding  of  the  teachers  themselves.  They 
will  find  out  how  to  teach,  when  they  see  clearly 
what  it  is  they  want  to  teach. 

The  three  addresses  here  printed  were  delivered 
to  very  different  audiences.  The  first  was  given, 
at  the  invitation  of  my  friend  Mrs.  Bryant,  to 
the  girls  of  the  North  London  Collegiate  School 
in  June,  1908.  My  subject,  '  The  Bible  as  a 
Whole,'  was  prescribed  to  me,  and  I  found  myself 
practically  limited  by  time  to  a  sketch  of  what 


Preface  7 

was  meant  by  the  Inspiration  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. At  that  time  it  was  the  Old  Testament 
that  seemed  to  present  most  difficulty  from  the 
teacher's  point  of  view.  In  the  last  few  j^ears 
much  has  been  written  with  the  purpose  of  pre- 
senting in  plain  language  the  gains  which  modern 
criticism  has  secured  for  the  interpretation  of 
these  ancient  Scriptures.  I  would  specially  com- 
mend 'The  Faith  of  the  Old  Testament,'  by 
Professor  Nairne  (Longmans,  2s.  6d.  net),  as  a 
most  attracti^'e  and  stimulating  introduction  to 
the  literature  and  to  the  religious  significance  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

But  to-day  I  am  assured,  and  I  can  well  believe 
it,  that  teachers  are  demanding  more  help  in 
regard  to  the  New  Testament.  Very  serious 
issues  are  being  raised,  and  they  cannot  be  con- 
fined to  academic  circles.  Teachers,  whose 
position  of  responsibility  makes  them  peculiarly 
sensitive  to  the  vicissitudes  of  controversies 
touching  the  authority  and  trustworthiness  of 
Scripture,  are  asking  themselves  with  what  con- 
fidence they  can  continue  to  teach  even  the 
simple  stories  of  the  Gospels.  The  same  kindly 
intervention  has  drawn  from  me  the  second  of 
these  addresses.  It  was  given  before  the  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Teachers'  Study  of  the  Bible, 
under  the  sympathetic  chairmanship  of  Professor 
Adams,  on  27  May,  1914.    I  have  again  done  Mrs. 


8  Preface 

Bryant's  bidding,  but  in  my  own  somewhat  in- 
direct way  ;   and  she  has  asked  that  this  may  be 
pubhshed  together  with  the  former  address,  to 
which,  though  on  a  very  different  scale,  it  is  in 
fact  supplementary.     I  have  not  dealt  with  the 
literary  problems  of  the  New  Testament,  though 
these  have  formed  the  chief  subject  of  my  own 
studies  for  many  years  ;    for  I  have  written  of 
some  of  them  elsewhere  in  a  manner  sufficiently 
plain,  and  there  are  many  aids  available  in  this 
department.    Nor  have  I  dealt  with  any  current 
controversies ;  for  these  do  not  appear  to  me  to 
be  suggested  by  the  literary  criticism  of  the  New 
Testament,    though    they    doubtless    affect    the 
trend  of  criticism  in  certain  minds.*     In  this 
address   I   have  endeavoured  to  set  forth  and 
illustrate  some  '  Central  Teachings  of  the  New 
Testament.'     I  am  aware  that  it  was  too  much 
to  crowd  into  a  single  hour,  and  I  should  not 
have  ventured  on  the  attempt  had  I  not  been 
assured  of  an  audience  exceptionally  receptive 
and  (as  I  quickly  found  to  be  the  case)  entirely 
sympathetic  to  my  treatment  of  the  subject. 
The  somewhat  enigmatic  counsels  with  which 

*  I  should  like  to  take  this  opportunity,  however,  of 
saying,  in  response  to  a  direct  question  which  has  been  put 
to  me,  that  I  still  maintain  the  position  which  I  took  some 
years  ago  in  a  series  of  addresses  given  in  Westminster 
Abbey  and  published  under  the  title,  'Some  Thoughts  on 
the  Incarnation  '  (Longmans,  price  6d.  net). 


Preface  9 

this  address  opened  could  not  for  lack  of  time 
be  brought  into  clear  connection  with  what 
followed.  I  repeated  them  at  the  close,  feeling 
sure  that  their  drift  would  begin  to  be  seen.  I 
have  added  now  a  paper,  read  at  Southampton 
before  the  Church  Congress  of  last  year,  which 
will  show  something  more  of  what  was  in  my 
mind.  '  The  Christ  of  History  '  was  not  a  title 
that  I  should  myself  have  chosen  ;  and  it  may 
be  well  to  recall  by  way  of  explanation  that  it 
formed  part  of  a  remarkable  programme  which 
went  on  to  speak  of  '  The  Christ  of  Experience.' 
But  the  occasion  enabled  me  to  say  some  things 
which  appear  to  me  to  be  of  great  importance  in 
regard  to  the  criticism  and  interpretation  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  especially  of  the  records  of 
our  Lord's  life  ;  and  I  have  been  urged  by  one 
whose  kindly  judgment  must  needs  weigh  with 
me  to  rescue  this  paper  from  the  comparative 
oblivion  of  a  Church  Congress  Report,  and  to  put 
it  forth  afresh  for  the  consideration  of  those  who 
are  rendered  anxious  by  some  recent  questionings. 

The  Deanery,  Wells, 
June,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface        .            .            .            •  •  .      o 

I.      The  Bible  as  a  Whole        .  .  -13 

IL    Central  Teachings    of    the  New 

Testament  .           .           •  •  .24 

III.  The  Christ  of  History       .  .  .52 


THOUGHTS   FOR  TEACHERS 
OF  THE  BIBLE 


THE    BIBLE    AS    A    WHOLE 

I  HAVE  been  asked  to  say  something  on  a 
very  serious  subject,  to  which,  as  I  am  told, 
the  minds  of  many  of  you  are  turned.  I  was 
glad  to  hear  it,  for  it  is  a  subject  on  which  I  have 
spent  the  greater  part  of  my  life  ;  but  it  is  a 
very  large  subject  to  treat  in  a  short  space  of 
time.  I  have  been  asked  to  speak  to  you  about 
the  Bible — '  the  Bible  as  a  whole,'  these  are  my 
words  of  command  ;  and  that  is  a  very  large 
subject,  because  the  Bible  is  not  a  book  so  much 
as  a  shelf  of  books,  or  rather  we  might  say  two 
shelves  of  books  in  two  languages,  one  shelf  in 
Hebrew  and  another  shelf  in  Greek.  And  these 
books  are  very  different  in  point  of  time  :  the 
Greek  shelf,  indeed,  was  written,  roughly  speaking, 
within  fifty  years,  but  the  Hebrew  shelf  ranges 
over  a  thousand  years,  or  more,  if  we  take  the 
earliest  and  the  latest  written  elements  which  it 

13 


14    Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

contains.  And  then,  again,  these  books  are  very- 
different  in  point  of  subject ;  there  is  folk-lore, 
and  history,  and  poetry,  and  philosophy,  and 
prophecy  ;  and  in  the  second  shelf  there  is  history 
again,  and  correspondence,  and  doctrinal  treatises 
and  an  apocalypse  ;  and  yet  we  sum  it  all  up  in 
one  book  and  call  it  the  Bible. 

Have  you  ever  noticed  that  we  have  made  a 
singular  word  out  of  a  plural  ?    Bible  is  derived 
from  the  Latin  biblia,  which  again  is  a  borrowed 
Greek  word.     Biblia  is  the  plural,  and  means 
'  books  ' ;    it  does  not  mean  a  '  book  '  at  all. 
Now  in  the  Middle  Ages,  whether  it  was  from 
carelessness  or  whether  it  was  by  a  true  instinct 
I  cannot  tell  you, — but  they  loved  the  Bible  then 
and  they  were  not  careless  about  it  :    in  the 
Middle  Ages  they  took  biblia  in  Latin  not  as  a 
plural  {biblia,  genitive  bibliorum,  as  it  used  to  be), 
but  they  made  it  a  feminine  noun,  and  they  said 
biblia,  biblice,  bibliajn.     So  they  made  a  plural 
word  into  a  singular ;  and  we  have  inherited  that, 
and  so  with  us  the  word  Bible  is  what  I  suppose 
is  called  in  the  grammars  a  noun  of  multitude 
(is  that  it  ?)  or  a  noun  of  comprehension.    It  has 
come  to  be  a  singular  word  with  a  plural  meaning  ; 
and  so  the  very  history  of  the  word  speaks  to  us 
and  tells  us  that  when  we  talk  of  the  Bible  we 
are  talking  of  a  number  of  books  and  not  one 
book, — the  sacred  books  of  our  religion. 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     15 

For  the  Bible  is  a  bundle  of  books,  which  we 
must  untie  so  that  we  may  look  at  the  books 
separately.  And  not  only  so,  but  in  some  cases 
one  book  of  the  Bible  proves  to  be  itself  a  bundle 
that  Avants  untying  :  for  it  has  been  put  together 
out  of  older  books  :  and  a  great  deal  of  what  is 
called  criticism,  especially  the  '  higher  criticism,' 
is  this  untying  and  separating  with  a  view  to 
better  understanding.  Perhaps  a  bundle  is  not  a 
very  appropriate  metaphor,  because  bundles  of 
things  are  generally  bundles  of  dead  things  ;  and 
if  there  is  one  truth  about  the  Bible  it  is  that  it  is 
a  living  thing,  a  growth,  and  a  development.  And 
therefore  perhaps  I  might  give  you  a  metaphor 
from  your  own  studies  that  will  help  you  more 
and  come  nearer  to  the  truth.  Just  as  you 
tenderly  take  a  flower  to  pieces  in  order  to  under- 
stand it  better  by  a  sight  of  its  hidden  parts,  so 
a  reverent  criticism  investigates  each  separate 
book  in  turn  to  discover  the  secret  of  its 
growth. 

So  far  I  have  spoken  of  the  diversity  of  the 
sacred  books  which  we  call  the  Bible — diverse  in 
language,  in  time,  and  in  subject.  But  if  I  am  to 
speak  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole,  it  is  quite  plain  that 
I  must  go  on  to  say  something  of  their  unity, 
which  makes  it  right  for  us  to  speak  of  them  all 
in  the  singular,  as  we  do  in  that  wonderful  word 
'Bible.'     What  then  is  the  bond  which  binds 


16     Tliouglits  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

these  books  together  ?  What  is  the  law  of 
growth  which  has  made  the  flower  ?  What  is 
the  secret  of  the  unity  of  the  Bible,  so  that 
we  can  think  of  and  speak  of  the  Bible  as  a 
whole  ?  I  should  like  to  put  it  in  this  way  :  The 
Bible  is  the  record  of  the  revelation  of  God  to  man 
through  man. 

Now  that  thought  of  the  revelation  of  God 
through  man  is  one  which  I  should  very  much 
wish  to  commend  to  you.  It  is  an  idea  of  very 
great  importance,  both  in  itself  and  also  for  the 
help  which  it  gives  us  as  a  key  to  unlock  many 
closed  doors.  It  is  important  in  itself  because  it 
implies  a  very  high  conception  of  human  nature. 
It  ennobles  man  by  the  suggestion  that  his  being 
so  far  corresponds  with  the  being  of  God  that  the 
revelation  of  God  can  be  made  through  man  ; 
and  even  more  by  the  suggestion  that  with  man's 
groAVth  the  revelation  of  God  may  grow,  and  that 
the  progressive  development  of  man  carries  with 
it  the  promise  of  a  progressive  revelation  of  God. 
Moreover,  the  idea  is  not  only  important  in  itself, 
but  it  offers  the  solution  of  some  very  natural 
difficulties.  I  mention  in  particular  three — 
Inspiration,  Incarnation,  and  the  Indwelling  of 
God  in  the  Church.  Now,  I  am  not  going  to 
speak  of  all  these  this  afternoon  ;  I  am  only 
going  to  say  something  about  the  first.  You  will 
admit  at  any  rate  that   these  are  problems  of 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     17 

to-day  on  which  we  need  all  the  light  that  we  can 
get. 

Inspiration  probably  suggests  first  and  fore- 
most to  your  minds  the  inspiration  of  a  book. 
Now  I  must  say  that  to  me  it  primarily  means 
the  inspiration  of  a  people.  The  people  is  before 
the  book.  The  book  is  the  surviving  literature 
of  an  inspired  people.  The  revelation  of  God  is 
not  made  by  a  miraculous  dictation  of  words  and 
sentences  :  it  is  made  through  man,  through 
human  lives  and  human  thoughts,  guided  and 
lifted  by  the  special  care  of  God,  who  brought 
one  people  peculiarly  near  to  Himself  in  order  that 
their  knowledge  of  Him  might  enlighten  the  world. 
You  may  take  your  little  sister's  hand  in  your 
stronger  hand,  and  squeeze  her  fingers  against  a 
pen  and  make  her  write  what  you  choose.  That  is 
some  people's  notion  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible. 
They  say  God  wrote  it,  through  a  man,  indeed, 
or  through  men, — but  God  wrote  it,  and  there- 
fore you  must  accept  every  word  of  it  as  an 
absolute  fact.  Now  there  is  not  the  slightest 
ground  in  the  Bible  itself  for  such  a  belief ;  and 
that  notion  is  responsible  for  nearly  all  our  diffi- 
culties about  inspiration,  especially  the  inspiration 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

Now  apply  to  inspiration  this  idea  that  God  is 
revealed  to  man  through  man.  A  certain  people 
is  chosen  as  the  depositary  of  the  revelation  ; 

B 


18     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

so  that  father  may  pass  it  on  to  son,  and  the 
national  Hfe  may  perpetuate  and  secure  the 
sacred  deposit  and  develop  it  with  the  growing 
capacity  of  the  people.  The  people  passes 
through  fierce  trials  which  threaten  again  and 
again  to  overwhelm  its  national  existence  ;  but 
again  and  again  God  comes  at  the  moment  of 
perplexity  and  peril,  and  reveals  Himself  as  the 
deliverer,  or  as  ready  to  support  until  it  is  time 
to  deliver.  The  bush,  as  Moses  saw  it  in  his 
comforting  vision,  the  bush  was  burning,  but  it 
was  not  consumed. 

Now  the  literature  of  every  people  begins  with 
legends  or  tales,  on  which  a  high  store  is  set, 
though  nobody  can  tell  where  they  have  come 
from.  They  are  a  bond  of  their  national  life,  they 
recite  the  deeds  of  their  national  heroes.  And 
these  talcs  formed  the  elementary  education  of  the 
young  before  writing  and  reading  were  invented. 
They  embodied  the  conceptions  of  the  people  as 
to  the  world  of  the  past,  and  they  set  out  their 
thoughts  in  a  picturesque  and  symbolic  form. 
The  Hebrew  people  was  a  branch  of  the  great 
Semitic  family,  and  they  inherited  from  that 
great  family  a  stock  of  such  legends  or  tales  of 
the  people.  We  can  fmd  close  parallels  to  some 
of  them,  for  example  to  the  story  of  Babel  and  to 
the  story  of  the  Flood,  in  those  wonderful  bricks 
that  have  been  brought  from  Babylonia  to  the 


Thoughts  fo7'  Teachers  of  the  Bible     19 

British  Museum.  When  the  providence  of  God 
laid  hold  of  one  branch  of  this  great  Semitic 
family — the  Hebrew  people — for  special  training, 
it  did  not  neglect  this  one  possible  method  of  its 
education.  It  guided  the  people  to  recast  its 
legends,  so  as  to  purify  them  from  all  idolatrous 
conceptions  and  degrading  tendencies,  and  to  fill 
them  with  the  true  thoughts  about  God  and  man  ; 
and  the  result  you  find  when  at  last  the  legends 
were  collected  and  committed  to  a  literary  form. 
You  may  read  them  in  the  Book  of  Genesis. 
They  are  the  stories  which  fathers  used  to  tell 
their  children  about  their  national  heroes  and 
about  the  origin  of  the  world.  These  stories,  as 
we  might  expect,  contain  only  that  element  of 
history  which  such  stories  contain  in  the  case  of 
other  peoples.  But  they  contain  true  conceptions 
about  God  and  man,  which  God  had  been  guiding 
the  people  to  form.  They  are  morally  true  and 
uplifting.  They  put  ideas  in  picturesque  forms 
suitable  for  simple  minds.  These  are  the  stories 
which  first  taught  you  the  fear  of  God,  and  which, 
one  day,  if  you  are  wise,  you  will  love  to  tell  to 
your  children.  Now  my  point  is  this  :  God  took 
man's  best  at  that  period  and  revealed  Himself 
through  it. 

Well,  now  open  the  Bible  at  a  much  later 
point  ;  take  the  Book  of  Psalms.  Here  are  the 
noblest  aspirations  after  God  which  have  ever 


20     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

been  uttered.  '  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the 
water  brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee, 
O  God  '  :  '  Seek  ye  my  face  :  thy  face.  Lord, 
will  I  seek.'  There  we  find  God  revealing 
Himself  through  aspirations  which  are  first  of 
all  inspirations,  and  so  guiding  a  human  soul 
into  fellowship  with  Himself.  The  soul  op- 
pressed with  a  great  longing  breaks  forth  into 
passionate  poetry,  and  expresses  for  all  time  the 
truth  that  God  has  made  us  for  Himself  and 
our  heart  cannot  rest  until  it  finds  its  rest  in 
Him. 

Then  we  may  go  on  to  speak  a  word  about  the 
prophets,  those  great  religious  politicians,  who 
suided  or  who  denounced  monarchs  in  the  name 
of  God,  who  lifted  up  a  standard  of  righteousness, 
and  who  stood  between  the  poor  and  their 
oppressors.  If  the  books  and  fragments  of  the 
prophecies  are  inspired,  that  is  because  the 
prophets  were  the  God-given  leaders  of  a  God- 
guided  people.  Once  again  you  see  it  is  through 
man  that  God  and  God's  will  become  known. 
But  the  prophets  had  a  further  task  besides  the 
proclamation  of  righteousness  and  the  directing 
of  the  nation's  politics  and  morality.  They  had 
the  sublime  gift  of  reading  the  future  by  the 
tokens  of  the  present,  and  of  stimulating  hope  by 
the  creation  of  an  ideal.  A  long  experience  of 
the  monarchy  had  taught  the  people  of  Israel  a 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     21 

great  deal.  It  had  seen  its  good  kings,  and  how 
the  God  of  righteousness  had  blessed  them  and 
their  people  ;  it  had  seen  its  bad  kings,  and  had 
witnessed  the  degradation  and  curse  which  had 
followed  their  revolt  from  the  true  God.  And 
then  it  had  lost  its  kings  altogether,  and  had  been 
swept  away  into  captivity  in  Babylon.  There 
its  prophets  came  to  the  rescue  of  its  failing  hope. 
Out  of  the  good  elements  and  bad  elements  of  the 
past,  instruction  had  been  gained  and  treasured, 
and  there  arose  before  the  prophet's  eye  the 
vision  of  a  King  who  should  refuse  the  evil  and 
choose  the  good,  who  should  be  a  true  represen- 
tative of  the  unseen  divine  King  who  had  chosen 
Israel  as  His  own  people,  who  should  reign  in 
righteousness  on  David's  throne,  and  of  Avhose 
kingdom  there  should  be  no  end.  But  side  by 
side  with  the  vision  of  the  King  reigning  in 
righteousness  there  arose  another  vision  inter- 
preting the  sorrows  of  the  present ;  the  vision 
of  a  suffering  Servant  of  God,  suffering  for  no 
sin  of  his  own,  but  for  his  people's  transgression, 
whose  sufferings  should  have  a  mysterious  power 
to  save.  And  the  two  prophetic  visions  came 
true  when  they  were  marvellously  fulfilled  in  one 
and  the  same  person.  The  King  came  and  the 
Man  of  Sorrows  came  ;  and  so  the  climax  of  God's 
revelation  of  Himself  through  man  was  made  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 


22     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  pass  on  into 
the  New  Testament  now.  I  think  I  have  said 
enough  to  show  you  what  I  feel  to  be  the  thread 
running  through  the  whole  of  this  great  literature 
which  we  call  the  Bible  and  linking  it  into  one  : 
the  inspiration  of  a  people,  the  inspiration  of 
those  who  led  the  people,  and  consequently  the 
inspiration  of  the  literature  which  the  people  left 
behind  it ;  the  revelation  of  God  to  man  through 
man — through  human  lives,  through  human 
thoughts,  through  human  suffering,  through 
human  love, — God  revealing  Himself  through  all 
of  these  :  and  at  last  the  climax  of  all,  when  He 
came  to  earth  who  could  be  spoken  of  both  as  the 
Son  of  Man — that  is  to  say,  the  ideal  of  man,  the 
man  of  men,  the  man  for  all  men — and,  at  the 
same  time,  as  the  Son  of  God.  So  at  last  was 
that  first  marvellous  suggestion  of  the  earliest 
chapter  of  the  Bible  fulfilled,  where  it  is  said  that 
God  made  man  in  His  own  image  and  after  His 
own  likeness  :  so  that  when  the  perfect  Man  came 
we  found  that  we  had  in  Him  the  perfect  image 
and  likeness  of  God  :  in  His  own  words,  '  He  that 
hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father.'  And  so  that 
second  shelf  of  holy  literature,  of  which  we  cannot 
speak  this  afternoon,  begins  by  telling  us  who  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  was,  as  men  looked  upon  Him 
as  He  walked  on  earth  ;  and  then  who  He  was,  as 
thoughtful  Christians  interpreted  the  meaning  of 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible    23 

the  life  which  had  been  lived,  after  He  had  passed 
back  into  the  unseen  world.  The  revelation  of 
God  to  man  through  man— the  Bible  is  the  record 
of  that  revelation. 


II 

CENTRAL   TEACHINGS   OF   THE   NEW 
TESTAMENT 

I  HAVE  something  preliminary  to  say  before 
I  get  actually  into  my  subject,  but  I  will 
not  waste  any  words  in  the  preface.  Generally 
speaking  with  regard  to  the  New  Testament  we 
may  lay  down  the  rule  that  the  Epistles  are  for 
the  teachers  and  the  Gospels  for  the  children. 
What  I  really  mean  to  say  by  that  is  this,  in  view 
of  a  good  deal  of  modern  thinking  and  contro- 
versy :  Children  are  not  staggered  by  the  miracu- 
lous, provided  they  know  that  their  teacher 
believes  in  it.  The  teacher,  in  proportion  to  his 
education  and  thoughtfulness  and  progressive- 
ness  of  mind,  is  amazed  by  miracle,  and  could 
not  retain  confidence  in  it,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
light  thrown  on  it  by  the  full  revelation  of  the 
unique  Personality  which  renders  miracle  appro- 
priate and  credible.  The  Epistles  show  us  the 
meaning  of  the  whole,  when  at  length  it  could  be 
viewed  as  a  whole  and  could  be  put  to  the  test 
of  a  wide  experience.  That  meaning  has  grown 
and  grows  ;   and  the  experience  has  widened  and 

24 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     25 

deepened,  until  it  has  become  a  vast  corporate 
experience  summed  up  in  the  testimony  of  the 
Christian  Church. 

Now  I  have  chosen  three  central  principles  of 
Christianity  to  speak  to  you  about.  I  begin  with 
what  I  might  call  the  first  principle  of  all,  and 
begin  to  study  it  in  the  life  of  Christ.  When  I 
say  I  begin  to  study  it  in  the  Ufe  of  Christ,  I  have 
learnt  it  from  the  Epistles  largely,  and  I  come 
back  with  it  to  study  the  life  of  Christ  in  the 
Gospels.  I  will  state  it  in  three  short  words — 
One  for  All. 

If  we  ask,  Why  did  Christ  come  down  from 
heaven  and  become  man  on  earth  ?  we  find  the 
answer  in  our  Creed,  which  is  a  summary  of  the 
Bible  teaching.  '  For  us  men  and  for  our  salva- 
tion he  came  down  from  heaven  and  was  made 
man.'  There  is  the  principle — He  for  us,  One 
for  all. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  earliest  account  of  our 
Lord's  life,  the  Gospel  according  to  St  Mark. 
As  soon  as  He  had  begun  His  ministry  we  find 
Him  in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum.  As  He 
was  speaking.  He  was  interrupted  by  the  cry  of 
a  madman,  or,  as  St  Mark  says,  a  man  with  an 
unclean  spirit.  You  can  imagine  the  horror  of 
the  congregation.  Jesus  quietly  says,  '  Hold  thy 
peace,  and  come  out  of  him.'  There  was  a  fearful 
struggle  and  a  wild  cry.     It  might  have  seemed 


26     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

for  a  moment  doubtful  what  the  issue  would  be  ; 
but  it  was  soon  over,  and  the  unclean  spirit  came 
out  of  him.  They  were  all  amazed  at  His  astonish- 
ing power.  From  the  synagogue  He  went  to 
Peter's  house,  and  found  Peter's  wife's  mother 
sick  of  a  fever ;  and  He  came  and  took  her  by 
the  hand  and  the  fever  left  her. 

The  news  of  these  strange  doings  spread  quickly. 
It  was  the  Sabbath,  and  as  soon  as  the  sun  set 
the  Sabbath  was  over  and  the  whole  population 
gathered,  bringing  their  sick  folk  whom  they 
could  not  carry  about  on  the  Sabbath.  All  the 
city  was  gathered  together  at  the  door  of  Peter's 
house.  The  little  street  became  a  hospital,  and 
He  went  round  from  bed  to  bed  and  healed  them 
all.  No  wonder  that  the  next  morning  Peter 
sought  for  Him  with  the  words,  '  All  men  seek 
for  thee  '  :  They  are  all  wanting  you,  as  we 
should  say.  Yet  Peter's  '  all '  was  too  little  for 
Him.  '  Let  us  go  away,'  He  said,  '  to  the  adjoining 
villages  that  I  may  preach  there  also.' 

That  is  our  first  sight  of  the  Lord  Jesus  at  work 
among  the  people — a  wonderful  power  used  for 
all.  The  next  we  see  is  that  this  wonderful  power 
is  combined  with  a  no  less  wonderful  sympathy. 
No  one  is  outside  the  range  of  His  helpfulness. 
There  came  a  leper.  You  know  how  desperate 
the  leper's  case  was.  It  was  a  marv'cllous  faith 
that  made  the  leper  say,  '  If  thou  wilt,  thou  canst 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     27 

cure  even  me.'  The  only  question  in  his  mind 
was,  Will  He  ?  What  was  the  answer  of  Jesus  ? 
He  touched  him.  Nobody  else  would  do  that. 
The  leper  was  outside  the  pale.  He  was  cut  off 
from  the  congregation.  To  touch  him  was  to 
put  yourself  outside  the  pale.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  Jesus  Himself  had  to  retire  for  awhile  ;  He 
could  no  more  openly  enter  into  the  city,  but 
was  without  in  desert  places.'  He  might  have 
healed  him  with  a  word  without  touching  him, 
as  He  did  in  the  case  of  the  ten  lepers  afterwards. 
But  no  :  He  wanted  to  come  into  touch  with  that 
man  whom  everybody  avoided.  He  wished  to 
make  him  feel  His  real  care  for  him  ;  and  I  am 
sure  also  that  He  wanted  to  make  us  feel  that 
His  love  makes  no  exceptions,  that  no  soul  is  too 
leprous  to  come  to  Him.  As  He  Himself  says, 
'  Him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast 
out.' 

There  it  is  then — the  wonderful  sympathy 
going  out  to  all.  It  was  not  easy  to  be  the  One 
for  all.  There  are  indications  in  the  Gospels  that 
His  works  of  power  were  not  performed  without 
cost.  It  may  be  that  St  Matthew's  Gospel  hints 
at  this,  when  it  quotes  after  those  sunset  cures 
the  words  of  Isaiah,  '  He  took  our  infirmities 
himself,  and  carried  our  weaknesses.' 

Passing  from  this,  which  belongs  to  the  deeper 
region  of  His  life,  into  which  we  cannot  penetrate, 


28     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

we  see  how  full  and  crowded  His  days  became. 
To  be  the  One  for  all  meant  a  busy  life.  Look  at 
the  third  chapter  of  St  Mark,  where  is  the  story 
of  how  He  asked  that  a  little  boat  might  wait 
upon  Him  because  of  the  multitude.  I  can  give 
you  a  modern  parallel  to  that  one  point.  When 
I  was  in  St  Petersburg  in  1897,  Father  John  of 
Cronstadt  was  at  the  height  of  his  influence,  and 
when  he  came  up  the  river  to  St  Petersburg 
hundreds  of  people  gathered  outside  any  house 
where  he  was  known  to  be,  and  pressed  on  him 
for  his  blessing,  or  sought  to  obtain  his  prayers 
for  their  particular  troubles.  It  became  so 
difficult  for  him  to  travel  by  the  river  steamers, 
that  some  of  his  wealthy  friends  provided  him 
with  a  little  steam-launch  in  order  that  he  might 
get  about  quickly  and  avoid  the  pressure  of  the 
all  crowding  on  the  one.  The  Lord  felt  the 
difficulty,  for  He  said  to  the  disciples,  as  we  see 
from  another  place  in  St  Mark,  '  Come  ye  apart 
into  a  desert  place  and  rest  awhile.'  There  were 
many  coming  and  going,  and  they  had  no  leisure 
— no  leisure,  no,  not  so  much  as  to  eat.  Yet  even 
so,  St  Mark  goes  on  to  tell  us,  they  could  not 
escape.  The  people  saw  them  departing.  Jesus, 
when  He  came  out  of  the  boat,  saw  much  people. 
Did  He  express  His  disappointment  ?  No,  He 
was  '  moved  with  compassion  because  they  were 
as  sheep  not  having  a  shepherd  '  ;    and  He  had 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible    29 

come  to  be  their  Shepherd — the  One  for  all, 
whatever  it  might  cost.  What  a  sacrifice  of  com- 
fort was  involved  in  that  comfortable  word, 
'  Come  unto  me  all.' 

And  if  you  would  see  His  own  comment  on 
His  life  you  will  find  it  in  St  Mark  x  45,  '  The 
Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister  '  ;  not  to  be  waited  on  but  to  wait 
on  others  :  that  is  the  thought  underlying  the 
original  words  as  you  can  see  by  comparing  them 
with  St  Luke  xxii  27  ;  not  to  be  served  but  to 
serve.  He  had  just  before  said,  '  Whosoever  of 
you  will  be  the  chiefest  shall  be  servant  of  all ' ; 
that  is  to  say,  He  that  would  be  nearest  to  Me, 
likest  to  Me,  must  remember  that  My  principle 
is  '  One  for  all,'  and  so  he  too  must  be  servant  of 
all.  There  is  a  saying  ascribed  by  early  writers 
to  Jesus,  not  found  in  the  Gospels,  but  which  may 
possibly  be  genuine  :  '  He  that  is  near  me  is  near 
the  fire.'  At  any  rate,  such  a  life  cannot  be  lived 
without  cost. 

There  then  we  have  His  own  account  of  the 
principle  of  the  highest  life — each  man  living  not 
for  himself  but  for  all.  He  was  doing  it  day  by 
day — One  for  all.  It  was  a  great  object-lesson, 
but  some  of  those  who  were  beginning  to  learn 
it  must  have  anxiously  asked  in  their  secret  souls, 
Is  there  no  limit  to  this  self-giving,  this  giving 
away  of  oneself  ?    Where  are  we  to  stop  ?    I  dare 


30     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

not  give  any  answer  of  my  own  to  that  question. 
I  can  only  say,  Come  to  Calvary  and  see  what 
His  answer  is  ;  look  on  the  Crucified,  and  then 
put  the  question  again.  Is  there  no  limit  to  this 
giving  away  of  oneself  for  others  ?  The  Cross 
answers  that  there  is  no  limit  at  all. 

If  this  thought  that  we  have  been  considering 
were  the  whole  of  the  message  of  the  life  and 
death  of  Jesus  Christ,  if  it  were  only  an  object- 
lesson  of  the  highest  human  life,  the  life  \njiich 
gives  itself  to  others  with  no  limit  at  all ;  then  this 
principle  of  One  for  all,  however  much  our  con- 
science might  approve  it,  could  but  crush  us  in 
the  dust  in  despair.  We  see  it  must  be  right,  it 
must  be  the  highest  ;  but  oh  !  how  much  too 
high  for  us  :  how  shamed  our  lives  are  when  we 
bring  them  to  a  test  like  that ;  how  utterly  selfish 
they  appear.  If  this  was  God's  intention  for 
each  of  us,  then  we  can  only  say,  '  All  have 
sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God  ' — all 
except  the  One. 

But  the  Gospel  does  not  end  with  the  Cross 
and  the  Grave.  Its  first  word  indeed  is  that  One 
for  all  is  the  highest  life  for  man ;  nay,  the  very 
life  of  God  revealed  in  the  Man  Christ  Jesus,  for 
the  life  of  the  Son  is  the  life  of  the  Father  who 
sent  Him.  But  it  does  not  leave  us  with  '  Be  ye 
therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  is  perfect.'    It  says  that  indeed,  for  it  can 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     31 

never  set  up  any  standard  of  life  short  of  the 
highest :  '  I  have  given  you  an  example,  that  ye 
should  do  as  I  have  done  to  you  '  :  '  This  is  my 
commandment  that  ye  love  one  another,  as  I 
have  loved  you  ;  greater  love  hath  no  man  than 
this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends  '  : 
'  We  ought  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren.' 
But  if  the  message  stopped  at  that,  we  should  have 
no  hope.  It  does  not  stop  there  ;  it  begins  there. 
One  for  all — the  One  on  the  Cross  for  all  whose 
sins  helped  to  nail  Him  there — means  more  than 
this.  At  once  it  means  that  God  who  spared  not 
His  own  Son,  but  gave  Him  up  for  us  all,  will 
spare  no  pains  to  conform  us  all  to  the  image  of 
His  Son :  and  when  we  see  that  the  Gospel  does 
not  end  with  the  Cross  and  Grave  of  Jesus,  but 
includes  the  Resurrection  and  the  promise  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  we  know  that  God  is  yet  further 
pledged  to  help  us  ;  '  for  he  was  delivered  for 
our  offences,  and  rose  again  for  our  justification.' 
So  speaks  St  Paul,  who  is  the  great  interpreter 
of  the  fuller  meaning  of  the  Gospel. 

There  are  indeed  hints  of  that  deeper  meaning 
in  our  Lord's  own  words  as  in  the  passage  from 
which  we  have  already  quoted  :  '  not  to  be  served 
but  to  serve,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for 
many ' ;  and  again  in  the  institution  of  the 
Eucharist,  'This  is  my  Blood  of  the  Covenant, 
which  is  poured  out  for  many.'    But  those  hints 


32     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

are  not  plain  until  they  are  lighted  up  by  what 
follows,  namely  by  the  resurrection  and  exalta- 
tion of  Christ. 

So  we  turn  to  St  Paul,  with  whom  the  words 
'  one  '  and  '  all '  are  very  favourite  words,  and 
who  tells  us  in  one  great  passage  quite  plainly 
that  '  One  died  for  all.'  One  for  all  is  the  key- 
note of  Romans  v  12-21 — a  difficult  passage  into 
which  I  must  not  now  go,  but  I  ask  you  to  con- 
sider it  in  this  light  for  yourselves.  If  the  '  One 
for  all  '  brought  ruin,  by  some  mysterious  law 
of  the  inter-connection  of  human  beings,  much 
more  has  '  One  for  all '  brought  redemption. 

We  must  glance  at  that  passage  to  which  I 
have  referred,  2  Corinthians  v  14,  in  which  we 
find  the  actual  phrase  '  One  for  all'  {ih  vn-ep  TravTwv). 
It  is  not  quite  plainly  translated  in  our  authorized 
version,  and  we  may  read  it  more  clearly  thus  : 
'  For  the  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us  ;  because 
we  thus  judge,  that  one  died  for  all,  therefore 
all  died  ;  and  he  died  for  all,  that  they  which 
live  should  not  henceforth  live  unto  themselves, 
but   unto    him    who    died    for    them    and    rose 


agam. 


To  sum  up  very  briefly  :  '  One  for  all  '  is  first 
our  despair,  and  then  it  is  our  hope.  The  very 
principle  that  casts  us  down  as  we  see  it  revealed 
in  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  is  itself,  when 
examined  again,  the  principle  of  our  redemption 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     33 

and  forgiveness  and  life.  '  One  for  all  '  is  first  a 
rebuke,  and  then  it  is  a  promise.  It  first  gives 
us  an  example,  and  then  it  gives  us  power.  We 
must  learn  it  both  ways  :  again  and  again,  both 
ways  :  cast  down  but  not  in  despair  ;  it  will 
humble  us,  in  order  to  exalt  us.  This  then  is 
our  first  principle,  and  I  now  go  on  to  the 
second. 

That  first  principle  is  not  without  its  deep 
mystery.  As  we  looked  at  it  to  begin  with,  it  was 
easy  :  that  is  to  say,  '  one  for  all  '  is  an  example 
easy  to  comprehend,  though  it  may  be  hard  to 
follow.  But  '  one  for  all  '  as  a  ransom  is  most 
mysterious  :  mysterious,  because  it  is  vital ; 
that  is  to  say,  it  has  to  do  with  life ;  and  all  life, 
even  physical  life,  is  a  profound  and  unexplained 
mystery.  The  words  indeed  are  very  simple, 
and  yet  they  contain  a  profound  mystery ;  and 
I  think  it  is  important  we  should  recognise  this. 
They  are  so  simple  that  the  simplest  minds  can 
get  hold  of  them  and  can  rejoice  in  them.  We 
see  that  often  among  the  poor  :  their  hearts  seem 
to  grasp  the  truth  without  intellectual  difficulty  : 
'  to  the  poor  the  Gospel  is  preached  '  :  it  comes 
as  a  divine  message,  it  is  accepted  as  such,  and 
it  does  its  wonderful  work.  Yet  the  thoughts 
which  the  words  contain  are  very  mysterious 
thoughts,  and  to  some  of  us  they  present  great 
c 


34     Tlioughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

difficulties.  In  proportion  to  our  education  and 
to  the  development  of  our  minds  the  difficulties 
seem  to  increase.  How  can  one  stand  for  all  ? 
we  ask.  We  can  readily  see  that  '  one  for  all ' 
is  true  as  the  law  of  the  highest  life,  a  life  of  un- 
remitting service,  a  life  of  unlimited  helpfulness 
and  of  unstinted  love.  But  that  is  what  con- 
demns us  and  plunges  us  into  despair.  But  when 
we  go  on  to  be  told  that  '  one  for  all,'  the  life  and 
death  of  loving  sacrifice,  whose  sign  is  the  Cross, 
is  not  only  our  Example  but  our  Redemption  ; 
then  we  feel  that  we  are  passing  from  the  clear 
to  the  obscure,  from  the  obvious  to  the  mysterious. 
Our  hearts  can  spring  forward  to  accept  it ;  it 
just  meets  our  need  ;  and  the  actual  blessing  of 
redemption  which  it  brings  assures  us  that  it  is 
most  certainly  true.  But  our  minds  lag  behind. 
We  find  it  very  difficult  to  explain.  How  can 
one  stand  for  all,  so  as  to  die  for  all,  and  to  rise 
again  for  all  ?  That  is  a  question  which  we  are 
meant  to  ask.  We  need  not  call  it  a  doubt.  It 
is  consistent  with  a  perfect  and  sincere  faith. 
We  can  say,  I  believe  it  with  all  my  heart  ; 
I  know  by  my  experience  something  of  its 
truth  ;  but  I  wish  that  I  could  understand  it 
with  my  mind.  That  is  Anselm's  Credo  ut  in- 
ielligam. 

So    then    we    come    to    our    second    principle, 
which  lies  near  the  root  of  this  great  mystery. 


Thoughts  f 01'  Teachers  of  the  Bible     35 

I  give  it  to  you  again  in  three  short  words  : 
All  in  One. 

We  come  at  once  to  St  Paul.  Again  and  again 
we  find  him  using  the  phrase  '  in  Christ,'  as  for 
example,  '  As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ 
shall  all  be  made  alive.'  First  notice  that  St 
Paul  does  not  say  '  in  Jesus.'  He  does  not  con- 
trast Adam  and  Jesus,  but  Adam  and  Christ. 
All  through  the  Gospel  Jesus  is  the  name  em- 
ployed. In  a  few  places  we  have  '  the  Lord  ' ; 
but  '  Christ '  is  rare  and  exceptional,  never  used 
simply  as  a  name.  When  we  turn  to  St  Paul's 
Epistles  we  find  the  exact  opposite.  '  Jesus  '  is 
seldom  found  alone  ;  and  in  almost  every  instance 
a  special  reason  for  its  u)»e  can  be  seen.  When  a 
special  name  is  given  to  our  Lord,  it  is  usually 
'  Christ  '  or  '  the  Christ '  ;  but  often  we  have  the 
double  name  '  Jesus  Christ,'  or  '  the  Lord  Jesus,' 
or  the  full  title  '  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.'  '  Jesus  ' 
is  the  personal  name  by  which  He  was  known 
throughout  His  life,  and  which  was  written  on 
the  Cross  :  '  Jesus  of  Nazareth.'  '  Christ '  is 
properly  a  title  ;  '  the  Christ '  means  simply 
'  the  Anointed  '  :  it  is  the  Greek  translation  of 
the  Hebrew  word  '  Messiah.'  The  Messiah  was 
the  anointed  King  whom  the  Jews  expected  to 
come  from  God  at  the  end  of  the  world,  to  rescue 
them  from  their  oppressors,  and  to  bring  in  a 
reign   of  righteousness   and   peace ;    and   when 


36     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

Jesus  spoke  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  being  at 
hand,  all  the  people  began  to  say,  '  Is  this  the 
Christ  ?  '  But  they  got  no  answer.  Towards 
the  close  the  disciples  were  allowed  to  know  the 
secret ;  and  at  the  last  it  was  because  Jesus 
claimed  to  be  the  Christ  that  the  high  priest  said 
He  had  spoken  blasj^hemy,  and  delivered  Him 
over  to  the  Romans,  who  crucified  Him  as  a 
pretended  King  of  the  Jews.  When  St  Paul,  who 
had  fiercely  resisted  the  belief  that  Jesus  was 
indeed  the  Messiah,  was  at  last  converted,  we 
read  that  he  began  to  proclaim  at  Damascus  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ,  and  it  was  by  this  title  that 
he  preferred  ever  afterwards  to  speak  of  Him. 
For  to  St  Paul  He  was  not  merely  or  chiefly 
Jesus  the  Prophet  of  Nazareth,  but  the  Christ 
who  had  been  crucified  and  was  now  risen  and 
ascended  :   '  We  preach  Christ  crucified.' 

The  Christ  then  was  the  royal  representative 
of  the  Jewish  nation,  the  summing  up  in  one  of 
the  chosen  people.  He  stood  for  them  all  :  their 
sure  hope  was  that  His  triumi^h  would  be  theirs. 
But  the  Christ  as  revealed  to  St  Paul  was  more 
than  that.  St  Paul  had  learnt  that  God's  purpose 
was  a  wider  one  ;  as  it  had  been  said  to  Abraham, 
'  In  thee  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  families  of 
the  earth  be  blessed.'  He  had  learnt  that  the 
Christ  stood  for  all  men,  not  only  for  Jews  but 
for  the  Gentiles  also.     All  were  summed  up  in 


Thoughts  for  Teache7's  of  the  Bible     37 

Him  :  '  all  in  one.'  Now  we  can  understand  why 
he  contrasts  Adam  not  with  Jesus  but  with  Christ. 
St  Paul  knew  that  the  word  Adam  was  the 
Hebrew  word  for  man.  In  Adam,  the  first  man, 
all  are  included  as  his  descendants  ;  and  he  even 
calls  Christ  '  the  second  Adam,'  the  second  man, 
the  new  head  of  humanity  ;  and  so  he  says,  '  As 
m  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be 
made  alive.'  All  in  one  for  death  ;  all  in  one  for 
life  from  the  dead. 

It  is  because  we  believe  that  our  Lord  Jesus  is 
more  than  the  single  individual  man  who  lived 
the  wonderful  life  of  unselfishness  and  died  the 
wonderful  death  of  love  ;  because  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  man  (not  the  son  of  David 
only),  the  representative  man,  in  whom  all  men 
are  summed  up,  all  in  one — it  is  because  of  this, 
I  say,  that  all  that  He  has  done  is  ours  :  His  life, 
His  death.  His  resurrection.  His  glory — all  are 
ours,  for  we  are  all  in  Christ. 

It  was  this  great  truth,  that  all  are  summed  up 
in  Christ,  which  inspired  St  Paul  with  his  mis- 
sionary zeal.  He  could  not  rest  until  he  had 
told  it  everywhere.  It  was  this  which  sent  him 
wandering  through  the  world  with  the  wonderful 
message  :  '  I  am  a  debtor,  both  to  the  Greeks  and 
to  the  barbarians  ;  both  to  the  wise  and  to  the 
unwise.'    '  Woe  is  me,  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel.' 

Now  for  a  moment  I  ask  you  to  turn  to  one  of 


38     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

the  noblest  passages  in  St  Paul's  writings,  and  I 
beg  you  to  ponder  it  after  what  I  have  said.  See 
how  he  expounds  this  great  principle  of  '  all  in 
one,'  as  being  the  very  secret  of  God's  purpose 
for  the  world — '  the  mystery  of  his  will  '  he  calls 
it — and  how  he  expands  it  to  include  not  only 
all  persons  but  all  things  as  gathered  up  in  one 
in  the  Christ.  You  will  know  that  I  am  referring 
to  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians. 
He  addresses  himself  to  '  the  saints  which  are  at 
Ephesus  and  to  the  faithful  in  Christ  Jesus,'  that 
is  to  sa)^,  to  those  who  have  already  found  their 
place  in  Christ.  '  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  blessed  us 
with  all  spiritual  blessings  in  the  heavenly  places 
in  Christ  :  even  as  he  hath  chosen  us  in  him 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world.'  Then  he 
speaks  of  the  '  grace  which  he  hath  bestowed 
upon  us  in  the  Beloved  '  (an  ancient  Jewish  name 
for  the  Messiah),  '  in  whom  we  have  the  redemp- 
tion through  his  blood.'  And  then  we  reach  the 
central  thought  of  the  secret  of  God's  purpose 
for  the  universe  :  '  Having  made  known  to  us 
the  mystery  (or  secret)  of  his  will,  according  to 
his  good  pleasure  which  he  purposed  in  him,  to 
be  worked  out  when  the  time  was  fully  come  ; 
namely  to  gather  up  in  one  all  things  in  the  Christ, 
the  things  in  the  heavens  and  the  things  on  the 
earth.' 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible    39 

How  vast  and  lofty  is  St  Paul's  conception  of 
the  Christ  :  the  whole  universe  is  summed  up  in 
Him,  all  in  one.  We,  according  to  our  proportion 
and  capacity,  are  included  ;  as  he  goes  on  at  once 
to  say  :  '  in  him  in  whom  we  have  obtained  in- 
heritance '  ;  we  have  got  our  proper  place  accord- 
ing to  God's  intention  ;  we  of  the  Jews  '  who  were 
the  first  to  find  our  hope  in  the  Christ ;  in 
whom  you  also  (you  Gentiles),  when  you  heard 
and  when  you  believed  in  him,  were  sealed ' 
('  sealing '  was  one  of  the  earliest  names  for 
Christian  baptism)  'with  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
promise.' 

Throughout  the  Epistle  the  same  expression 
'  in  Christ '  comes  again  and  again  ;  but  we  must 
not  follow  it  further.  This  is  St  Paul's  hope  for 
himself,  his  hope  for  the  Jewish  people,  his  hope 
for  the  Gentiles  whom  the  Jews  had  counted  as 
outside  God's  Covenant.  It  is  his  hope  for  all 
mankind.  It  is  his  hope  for  the  whole  of  God's 
universe.  All  are  gathered  up  in  the  Christ :  all 
in  one. 

This  is  a  truly  grand  conception  of  the  purpose 
of  God.  It  is  the  most  splendid  interpretation 
of  the  meaning  of  the  universe  that  has  ever  been 
framed.  But,  you  may  say,  is  it  not  rather  un- 
practical and  remote  from  our  ordinary  life  ? 
Now  in  reply  to  that  I  would  remind  you  that 
we  have  just  been  reading  one  of  St  Paul's  latest 


40     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

Ei^istles,  containing  the  rijoest  thoughts  which  had 
been  given  to  him  only  after  a  long  experience  of 
what  Christ  actually  was  to  himself  and  to  others. 
It  is  good  for  us  to  know  what  a  great  back- 
ground of  thought  there  is  to  the  simplest  facts 
of  the  Christian  life.  But  St  Paul,  while  he  was 
so  great  a  thinker,  was  also  the  most  practical  of 
men,  and  his  earlier  letters  show  that  he  taught 
the  great  truth  practically  in  a  very  much  j^lainer 
way.  'In  Christ,'  he  would  say,  'is  the  very 
beginning  of  your  Christian  life.  When  j'^ou  had 
heard  my  message  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  what 
did  you  do  that  you  might  claim  your  part  in 
Him  ?  You  did  what  I  did  when  I  first  came  to 
know  of  it.  The  message  brought  to  me  was, 
"  Arise,  and  be  baptized,  and  wash  away  thy  sins, 
calling  on  his  name."  Then  I  gave  myself  wholly 
to  Him,  being  baptized  in  His  name.  So  it  was 
with  each  of  you.  You  enrolled  yourselves  as 
His,  you  identified  yourselves  with  Him,  you  put 
Him  on.'  So  he  says  in  Galatians  iii  27,  '  For  as 
many  of  you  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ 
have  put  on  Christ  '  ;  that  is  to  say,  you  clothed 
yourselves  with  Him,  so  that  He  was  as  a  covering 
robe,  and  you  were  in  Him.  That  is  the  plain 
homely  language  by  which  St  Paul  brought  the 
great  truth  home  to  his  converts. 

Look  at  Romans  vi  3,  where  the  thought  is 
fuller.     '  In  Christ  '  means  sharing  His  death, 


TJi ough  ts  for  Teache rs  of  th e  Bible     4 1 

sharing  His  grave,  sharing  His  resurrection. 
'  Know  ye  not  (surely  you  Christians  at  Rome 
were  taught  it  too)  know  ye  not  that  as  many  of 
us  as  were  baptized  into  Christ  were  baptized 
into  his  death.  We  were  buried  therefore  with 
him  through  baptism  into  death,  that  just  as 
Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of 
the  Father,  so  we  also  should  walk  in  a  newness 
of  life,'  Just  the  same  thought  finds  expression 
again  in  Colossians  ii  12 :  '  Having  been  buried 
Avith  him  in  baptism,  wherein  also  ye  were  raised 
with  him  through  faith  in  the  working  of  God 
who  raised  him  from  the  dead.' 

It  is  because  these  spiritual  truths  are  so  mys- 
terious that  God  in  His  loving  condescension, 
knowing  our  frame  and  remembering  that  we  are 
dust,  brings  them  to  us  in  the  simplest  ways — ways 
that  sometimes  to  our  minds  seem  almost  too 
simple.  We  are  not  left  with  a  lofty  and 
vague  mystery.  The  whole  matter  is  brought 
to  a  sharp  point  which  makes  it  practical  and 
effective. 

In  order  to  bring  this  heavenly  mystery,  '  in 
Christ,'  down  from  the  region  of  ideas  to  the  level 
of  our  life  on  earth — because  we  are  not  spirits 
only,  but  spirits  acting  through  material  bodies — 
God  has  mercifully  given  us  the  Sacrament  of  our 
initiation  into  Christ,  in  order  that  the  vague  and 
mysterious  may  have  a  point  of  contact  with  our 


42     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

actual  selves.  '  As  many  of  you  as  were  baptized 
into  Christ  put  on  Christ  '  ;  you  put  Him  on, 
you  came  to  be  in  Him. 

I  wish  you  would  take  the  opportunity  of  read- 
ing Martin  Luther's  comment  on  that  passage 
in  his  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians, 
a  book  of  which  John  Bunyan  wrote,  '  I  do  prefer 
this  book  of  Martin  Luther  upon  the  Galatians, 
excepting  the  Holy  Bible,  before  all  the  books 
that  ever  I  have  seen,  as  most  fit  for  a  wounded 
conscience.'  It  is  not  a  book  much  read  to-day  ; 
but  if  you  will  read  it,  you  will  be  interested  in 
seeing  how  he  brings  out  this  truth  in  clearer 
language  than  I  have  done. 

'  One  for  all.'  '  All  in  one.'  Is  there  more  to 
be  said  ?  Is  not  that  the  whole  of  the  Gospel  ? 
One  for  all,  the  sacrifice  of  our  redemption  :  All 
in  one,  the  method  of  our  justification  and 
sanctification.    Can  there  be  more  than  that  ? 

If  Ave  were  merely  isolated  individuals,  with 
separated  lives  and  distinct  destinies,  then  we 
might  stop  here  and  say,  It  is  enough.  Each  one 
of  us  could  say,  Thank  God  I  have  learnt  to 
believe  in  God  the  Father  who  hath  made  mc, 
and  in  God  the  Son  who  hath  redeemed  me,  and 
in  God  the  Holy  Ghost  who  sanctifieth  me.  But 
the  mere  quotation  of  these  familiar  words  will 
have  reminded  you  that  there  is  something  more 


TJiouf/hts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     43 

than  the  salvation  of  individual  souls  in  the  pur- 
pose of  God.  What  is  the  meaning  of  those 
large  words — '  all  the  world,'  '  all  mankind,'  '  all 
the  elect  people  of  God  '  ? 

St  Paul  says  in  one  place,  speaking  of  his  per- 
sonal experience,  '  Who  loved  me  and  gave  him- 
self for  me  '  ;  but  he  says  also,  '  Christ  loved  the 
Church  and  gave  himself  for  it.'  Indeed  St  Paul 
says  very  little  about  individuals  and  their 
salvation.  His  constant  thought  and  care  are 
for  the  whole,  which  he  calls  '  the  body  of  the 
Christ.'  And  so  we  take  one  other  great  principle, 
and  we  turn  again  to  St  Paul  and  hear  it  from 
him. 

We  can  find  it  immediately  after  the  passage 
on  baptism  in  Galatians  iii  26-28  :  '  For  ye  are 
all  the  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus. 
For  as  many  of  you  as  have  been  baptized  into 
Christ  have  put  on  Christ.  There  is  neither  Jew 
nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is 
no  male  and  female  :  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ 
Jesus.'  There  it  is.  You  may  have  it  in  two 
words,  or  better  in  three  :  '  All  one,'  '  All  one 
man.'  In  the  Greek  it  is  not  necessary  to  have 
the  three  words  ;  for  the  word  '  one  '  is  in  the 
masculine,  by  a  notable  boldness  of  expression. 
St  Paul  does  not  say  Travres  eV  ka-Te,  '  ye  are 
all  one  thing,'  that  is  to  say,  a  unity  ;  though 
that  is  perfectly  true :  but  Travres  ets  eVre,  '  ye  are 


44     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

all  one  living  being  '  ;  and  so  in  English  '  all  one 
man  '  is  clearer. 

This  reminds  us  at  once  of  the  great  figure  by 
which  St  Paul  describes  the  relation  between 
Christ  and  Christians,  the  relation  also  between 
Christians  and  Christians  ;  the  figure  of  the  body 
and  its  members.  The  Epistle  in  which  this  is 
most  elaborately  worked  out  is  the  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians.  And  why  that  Epistle  ?  The 
Christians  at  Corinth  were  on  the  point  of  break- 
ing up  into  several  sections,  taking  the  names 
of  great  leaders  and  even  the  name  of  Christ  Him- 
self as  party  badges.  '  What  I  mean  is  this,' 
says  St  Paul,  '  each  of  you  says,  I  am  of  Paul, 
or  I  am  of  Apollos,  or  I  am  of  Cephas,  or  I  am  of 
Christ.  Is  Christ  divided  ?  ' — he  almost  shouts 
the  words  at  them — '  Was  Paul  crucified  for  you  ? 
or  were  you  baptized  in  the  name  of  Paul  ?  ' 

Note  in  passing  how  St  Paul  instinctively 
connects  baptism  with  the  death  of  Christ,  as 
that  which  brings  it  home  to  the  individual 
experience.  These  Corinthians  had  heard  the 
message  of  Christ  crucified — One  for  all ;  had 
accepted  it  eagerly,  had  been  baptized  into 
Christ,  had  taken  their  position  in  Christ — all  in 
One.  Individual  personal  religion  had  never  been 
seen  at  a  greater  height.  They  came  behind  in 
no  gift,  St  Paul  gladly  admitted.  They  had 
experienced  the  new  power  of  the  life  of  Christ. 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     45 

There  could  be  no  question  of  the  reahty  of  their 
religion.  It  manifested  itself  in  astonishing  gifts 
of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  they  set  great  store  on 
these  gifts,  these  strange  powers,  and  on  their 
deep  insight  into  the  mysteries  of  the  spiritual 
world.  But  they  took  different  views  of  how 
Christians  ought  to  behave  themselves  in  their 
new  life.  Some  were  strict  on  principle  ;  some 
were  lax  on  principle,  asserting  liberty  '  in  Christ.' 
Their  public  assembly  for  worship  had  become 
a  Babel  of  uncontrolled  ecstatic  utterances. 

All  had  been  well  enough  while  the  Apostle's 
overmastering  personality  had  been  present  to 
restrain  them  ;  but  when  that  was  withdrawn  the 
full  perils  of  his  teaching  appeared.  It  was  one 
thing  to  bring  into  the  Christian  Church  indis- 
criminately Jew  and  Gentile,  barbarian  and 
Scythian,  slave  and  master,  '  all  in  one.'  It  was 
another  thing  to  harmonise  these  elements. 
Without  unity  Christianity  could  be  but  a  passing 
sect,  a  school  of  thought ;  not  a  universal  brother- 
hood, not  the  Church  of  God. 

How  did  St  Paul  set  about  to  deal  with  that 
perilous  situation  ?  We  see  this  in  the  12th 
chapter  of  the  First  Epistle.  He  explains  the 
source  and  purpose  of  these  powers  :  '  the  mani- 
festation of  the  Spirit  ' — that  is  the  source — '  is 
given  to  each  man  to  profit  others  with  ' — that  is 
the  purpose.     Individual  personal  religion  is  not 


46     Tlioughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

enough  by  itself.  It  is  not  enough  for  you  to  be 
'  in  Christ,'  enjoying  the  wonderful  privileges  of 
your  position.  You  must  get  into  your  true 
order  ;  you  must  find  your  proper  place  in  Christ's 
body  ;  you  must  keep  your  place.  The  Spirit 
that  works  in  you  is  not  yours.  It  is  the  Spirit 
of  the  Body  ;  '  for  in  one  Spirit  were  we  all 
baptized  into  one  body.'  The  Christ  is  not  merely 
a  heavenly  being  exalted  to  God's  right  hand,  in 
whom  you  too  are  exalted  in  the  heavenly  places. 
The  Christ  is  also  on  earth.  He  is  '  many  members 
but  one  body  '  ;  an  external,  visible,  tangible 
body  of  which  you  are  an  external,  visible,  tan- 
gible member  :  and  only  one  member,  not  a  com- 
plete whole  in  yourself  ;  only  a  part,  though  a 
necessary  part,  of  the  visible  Christ.  That  was 
what  5'^ou  were  made  by  the  visible,  external, 
tangible  fact  of  your  baptism.  '  For  as  the  body 
is  one,  and  hath  many  members,  and  all  the 
members  of  that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one 
body,  so  also  is  Christ.  For  by  one  Spirit  were  we 
all  baptized  into  one  body.' 

In  the  figure,  as  thus  used,  Christ  is  thought  of, 
not  as  the  Head,  but  as  the  whole  Body.  Other- 
wise the  Apostle  could  not  go  on  to  speak  of  the 
eye  and  ear  as  he  does.  Christ  is  the  whole,  you 
are  the  parts,  he  says.  Not  only  are  you  as 
individuals  '  in  Christ,'  all  in  one  ;  but  also  you 
are  the  limbs  of  His  body  ;   '  You  are  all  one  man 


TJioughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     47 

in  Christ  Jesus.'  Sometimes  when  we  speak  of 
the  body  we  include  the  head  ;  sometimes  we 
distinguish  between  head  and  body  :  and  St  Paul 
so  varies  his  metaphor.  We  must  not  go  further 
into  that.  I  will  only  refer  you  to  some  verses 
later  in  the  same  Epistle  where  the  process  of  the 
bodj^'s  growth  is  described  :  '  till  we  all  of  us 
together  come  ' — to  that  which  none  of  us  by 
himself  could  possibly  be — '  to  a  perfect  man  '  ; 
till  we  all  come  to  a  perfect  man,  the  fully  matured 
and  completed  Christ.  That  was  St  Paul's  hope 
for  the  future  :  that  the  body  would  grow  and 
grow,  gathering  in  more  and  more  members,  ever 
larger  and  yet  ever  one,  '  all  one  man  ' ;  until  the 
one  man  was  grown  to  full  stature,  the  perfect 
man,  '  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness 
of  the  Christ.' 

That  was  St  Paul's  Vision  of  Unity.  Far  off 
then — it  may  seem  to  us,  with  our  broken  and 
divided  Christianity,  still  further  off  to-day.  But 
it  is  the  will  of  God,  '  the  mystery  of  his  will.' 
And  to  keep  it  ever  before  us,  till  He  come  in  the 
realized  com^aleteness  of  His  body,  the  Lord  has 
mercifully  given  to  us  another  Sacrament.  If 
'  all  in  one  '  is  brought  near  to  each  of  us  in  the 
Sacrament  of  Holy  Baptism,  so  '  all  one  man  '  is 
bi-ought  near  to  each  of  us  in  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Holy  Communion.  Listen  to  St  Paul  once 
more.    '  The  Cup  of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it 


48     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

not  the  fellowship  of  the  Blood  of  Christ  ?  The 
Bread  which  we  break,  is  it  not  the  fellowship  of 
the  Body  of  the  Christ  ?  For  we,  the  many,  are 
one  bread,  one  body,  for  we  all  partake  of  the 
one  bread.' 

Now  in  illustration  of  that,  instead  of  giving 
you  words  of  my  own,  let  me  read  to  you  two 
passages  from  St  Augustine.  The  first  is  from 
the  City  of  God  (x  6).  Commenting  on  Romans 
xii  4,  he  says  :  '  This  is  the  sacrifice  of  Christians  : 
the  many,  one  body  in  Christ.  This  the  Church 
celebrates  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar  with 
which  the  faithful  are  familiar,  where  the  Church 
is  made  to  see  that  in  the  thing  which  she  offers 
she  is  offered  herself.'  The  second  passage  is 
fuller  and  more  explicit.  It  comes  in  a  sermon  to 
young  people  on  Whitsunday  before  the  Altar  : 
'  If  you  would  understand  what  is  the  meaning 
of  the  Body  of  Christ,  hear  the  Apostle  when  he 
says  to  the  faithful,  "  Ye  are  the  body  of  Christ, 
and  his  members."  If  therefore  you  are  the  body 
of  Christ  and  His  members,  then  the  mystery 
placed  on  the  Lord's  Table  is  the  mystery  of  your- 
selves. It  is  the  mystery  of  yourselves  that  you 
receive.  To  that  which  you  are  you  respond 
Amen,  and  by  responding  you  subscribe  thereto. 
For  you  hear  the  words.  The  Body  of  Christ ; 
and  you  respond.  Amen.  Be  the  member  of 
Christ's  Body  that  your  Amen  may  be  true.'  And 


TJioughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible    49 

he  ends  with  the  striking  words  :  '  Be  what  you 
see,  and  receive  what  you  are.'  It  is  surely 
interesting  to  us  to  see  a  great  Father  of  the 
Church  thus  instructing  young  people  for  their 
Whitsuntide  Communion. 

We  come  back  to  the  wonderful  words  of  St 
Paul.  We  feel  they  bring  home  to  us  character- 
istic issues  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Atonement 
— the  Cup  which  is  fellowship  with  the  Blood, 
the  Bread  which  is  fellowship  with  the  Body. 
See  how  bold  he  is.  He  does  not  say,  '  The  Cup 
represents  to  us  our  share  in  the  Atonement,'  in 
the  timid  kind  of  way  in  which  perhaps  we  should 
speak.  He  says,  '  It  is  what  it  represents.  It 
makes  us  sharers  in  the  Atonement.  It  makes 
His  Blood  ours.'  He  does  not  say,  '  The  Bread 
represents  to  us  our  union  with  the  Body  of 
Christ.'  He  says,  '  It  is  what  it  represents.  It 
makes  His  Body  ours  ;  nay,  more,  it  makes  us  to 
be  His  Body.  We  are  one  Body,  because  we  par- 
take of  the  one  Bread.' 

How  deeply  St  Paul  must  have  pondered  on 
those  words,  '  This  is  my  Body ;  this  is  my 
Blood.'  How  much  it  must  have  meant  to  him 
that  the  Lord  had  said,  '  This  is  my  Body,'  not 
'  This  is  my  Flesh  '  ;  though  that  also  is  true,  as 
we  know  from  St  John,  who  had  learned  to  say, 
'The  Word  was  made  flesh.'  But  to  St  Paul 
'  This  is  my  Body '  had  a  further  meaning.    He 

D 


50     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

thought  of  it  in  connection  with  the  truth  that 
Christ's  Body,  the  extension  of  the  Incarnation, 
is  a  hving  whole,  of  which  we  ourselves  are  a  part. 
The  bread  is  the  fellowship  of  the  Body  because 
we,  the  many,  are  one  bread  and  one  body, 
because  we  are  all  partakers  of  the  one  bread. 
The  loaf  broken  into  fragments  given  to  each 
unites  all  who  have  received  it ;  because  it  is  His 
Body,  it  makes  us  all  His  Body. 

One  for  all :  All  in  One  :  All  one  Man — a 
threefold  cord  that  is  not  quickly  broken.  We 
can  never  dispense  with  anj'^  of  these  three 
principles.  One  can  stand  for  all,  because, 
mysteriously,  all  are  in  One  ;  and  in  so  far  as 
we  are  all  one  Man,  we  shall  find  that  we  can  live, 
each  part  for  the  rest  of  the  body,  following  the 
example  of  the  highest  life — One  for  all. 

I  have  done  ;  but  I  am  anxious  to  say  again 
what  I  said  at  the  beginning,  because  now  perhaps 
you  will  see  a  little  more  what  I  meant.  The 
Epistles  are  for  the  teachers  and  the  Gospels  for 
the  children.  The  children  are  not  staggered  by 
the  miraculous  when  they  know  that  their  teachers 
believe  in  it.  The  teacher  in  proportion  to  his 
education  and  thoughtfulncss  is  amazed  by 
miracle,  and  could  not  retain  confidence  in  it  if 
it  were  not  for  the  light  thrown  on  it  by  the  full 
revelation  of  the  unique  Pcrsonalitj^  which  renders 
miracle  appropriate  and  credible.     The  Epistles 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible    51 

show  us  the  meaning  of  the  whole,  when  it  could 
at  last  be  viewed  as  a  whole  and  be  put  to  the 
test  of  a  wide  experience.  That  meaning  has 
grown  and  grows ;  and  the  experience  has 
\\ddened  and  deepened,  until  it  has  become  a 
vast  corporate  experience  summed  up  in  the 
testimony  of  the  Christian  Church. 


Ill 

THE   CHRIST  OF   HISTORY 

WE  must  begin  by  considering  what  is  the 
meaning  of  this  phrase.  The  contrast 
between  the  use  of  the  name  Jesus  and  the  use 
of  the  name  Christ  is  a  marked  feature  of  St  Paul's 
Epistles.  Almost  invariably  when  the  name 
Jesus  is  used  alone,  or  with  the  prefix  Lord,  the 
Apostle  is  referring  to  the  earthly  life  of  the 
Saviour ;  whereas  the  name  Christ  designates 
Him  in  His  post-ascension  glory.  Of  this  the 
Apostle's  great  phrase  '  in  Christ '  is  a  notable 
example.  He  does  not — perhaps  we  may  say  he 
could  not — speak  of  us  as  being  '  in  Jesus.'  Even 
the  passage  which  in  our  version  is  rendered 
'  them  that  sleep  in  Jesus  '  is  not  a  literal  trans- 
lation of  the  Apostle's  Greek.  Together  with 
this  contrast  we  may  also  note  how  limited  is  St 
Paul's  reference  to  the  earthly  career  of  the  Lord. 
He  has  nothing,  or  almost  nothing,  to  say  of  His 
teaching  or  His  miracles.  They  are  no  doubt 
assumed  as  part  of  the  historical  background, 
but  they  are  not  dwelt  upon.  The  facts  on  which 
St  Paul  rests  everything  are  the  death,  burial, 

52 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     53 

resurrection  and  ascension  of  the  Lord.  It  is 
these  facts  which  have  made  Him  for  St  Paul 
the  historical  Christ.  With  the  historical  Jesus 
before  the  passion  he  is  not  directly  concerned. 

It  is  otherwise  with  St  John.  For  him  Jesus 
is  the  Christ  from  the  outset.  The  teaching  and 
the  miracles  proclaim  Him  as  the  Christ,  no  less 
than  the  passion  and  resurrection.  Spiritual  the 
experience  in  either  case  has  led  to  this  difference 
of  grasp  and  of  expression.  Herein  St  John  stands 
midway  between  the  other  evangelists  and  St 
Paul — a  true,  if  not  a  conscious,  reconciler. 

The  synoptic  evangelists  are  properly  concerned 
only  with  the  earthly  career  of  the  Lord.  This  is 
most  conspicuously  seen  in  St  Mark,  who  sets  the 
type  for  the  rest  :  it  is  nearly  as  true  of  St  Luke, 
who  has  his  later  volume  in  mind,  in  which  he  will 
tell  of  the  Ascended  Lord  and  of  His  action 
through  His  Church  :  it  is  somewhat  less  so  with 
the  writer  whom  we  call  St  Matthew,  who  writes 
with  a  later  experience  of  Church  life. 

When  we  speak  therefore  to-day  of  the  Christ 
of  History  we  must  ask  ourselves  what  we  mean. 
The  phrase  '  Back  to  Christ,'  Avhich  we  used  to 
hear,  was  generally  intended  to  signify.  Back  to 
the  Gospels,  and  specially  to  the  synoptic  Gospels. 
Then  it  was  narrowed  to  mean.  Back  to  the 
earliest  substratum  which  literary  criticism  could 
discern  in  the  synoptic  Gospels :  back  even  behind 


54     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

St  Mark,  by  a  process  of  conjectural  discrimi- 
nation, which  was  often  influenced  by  a  desire  to 
reduce  the  supernatural  element  of  the  narrative 
to  the  smallest  compass,  if  not  to  eliminate  it  on 
principle  altogether. 

The  history  of  this  process,  with  its  issue  in  the 
modern  concei^tion  of  the  '  liberal  reformer  '  in 
Galilee  who  met  his  fate  in  Jerusalem,  has  been 
brilliantly  sketched  and  criticized  by  Albert 
Schweitzer,  who  declares  that  his  countrymen 
have  been  fashioning  a  Christ  out  of  their  own 
social  ideals,  and  who  somewhat  harshly  reminds 
them  that  they  have  forgotten  the  apocalyptic  or 
eschatological  element  which  ruled  the  Master's 
outlook,  formed  the  core  of  His  teaching,  and 
determined  His  career.  So  all  is  to  begin 
again  with  a  fresh  understanding  of  the  central 
motive. 

This  search  for  the  human  Jesus,  fruitful  as  it 
has  been  in  many  points  of  detail,  has  come  up 
perpetually  against  a  barrier  of  baffling  mystery. 
The  life  so  treated  will  not  yield  to  reasonable 
interpretation.  But  we  on  our  part  '  have  not 
so  learned  the  Christ,'  or  '  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus.'  We  have  all  of  us  practically  begun  with 
the  Creed,  which  declares  Him  to  be  '  the  only- 
begotten  Son  of  God  '  and  '  our  Lord  '  :  with  the 
plain  statements  of  His  wonderful  Birth,  His 
Death  and  Burial,  His  wonderful  Resurrection 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     55 

and  Ascension,  and  His  future  Return  to  Judg- 
ment. We  have  seen  Him  whole  from  the  outset. 
In  the  Hght  of  all  this  we  have  read  the  Gospels — 
read  them  as  the  Church  reads  them  and  has 
always  read  them  in  her  most  solemn  service,  as 
complementary  the  one  to  the  other,  and  with 
no  attempt  to  distinguish  between  them.  That 
has  been  our  method  of  approach,  and  it  has 
ruled  our  criticism.  We  have  never  felt  under 
an  obligation  to  discover  a  merely  human  Jesus. 
In  the  main,  though  not  in  every  detail,  it  is  true 
to  say  summarily  that  we  have  begun  with  the 
teaching  of  St  Paul,  with  the  pre-incarnate  Christ 
and  the  great  redemptive  facts.  We  have  come 
to  the  Gospels  in  the  light  of  the  Epistles.  And 
so  we  have  found  in  the  Gospels  the  mystery 
which  we  had  learned  to  expect,  and  our  surprise 
has  been  that  the  Life  should  after  all  be  so  truly 
and  simply  human  as  it  there  appears. 

Now  if  '  Back  to  Christ '  means  this,  then  the 
Christ  of  History  is  a  phrase  which  conveys  a 
much-needed  lesson  to-day.  We  shall  not  solve 
our  problems  in  the  Gospels  if  we  neglect  to  study 
first  of  all  that  prevailing  conception  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  which  was  certainly  full  in  the  view 
of  every  one  of  their  ^vriters.  If  the  New  Testa- 
ment were  bound  up  in  the  order  in  which  the 
books  were  written,  and  not  in  the  order  of  their 
subject  matter,  you  would  realize  every  time  you 


56     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

opened  it  that  all  the  Gospels  are  later  in  date 
than  any  of  the  indisputable  Pauline  Epistles. 
St  Paul  is  the  earliest  of  our  writers  ;  and  the 
first  of  the  evangelists,  St  Mark,  as  well  as  the 
next  in  time,  St  Luke,  was  a  companion  and 
fellow- worker  of  St  Paul. 

It  is  a  maxim  of  historical  study  that  we  must 
endeavour  to  know  the  writer  if  we  are  to  appraise 
the  writing  :  that  we  must,  if  we  can,  place  him 
among  his  contemporaries,  and  see  what  his  sur- 
roundings were,  what  atmosphere  he  breathed, 
and  under  the  stress  of  what  convictions  he  set 
about  his  work.  St  Mark,  for  example,  was  a 
Christian  missionary  who  travelled  with  St  Paul 
once,  and  was  ready  to  travel  with  him  again  had 
St  Paul  been  willing  to  take  him.  It  may  be  that 
he  did  not  fully  share  St  Paul's  wide  outlook  on 
the  Gentile  world,  and  like  others  of  the  Jerusalem 
believers  he  had  doubts  as  to  the  acceptance  of 
Gentile  converts  without  their  submission  to 
Jewish  ordinances  ;  but  before  he  came  to  write 
his  Gospel  he  had  seen  how  God  had  indeed 
opened  the  door  of  faith  to  the  Gentiles,  and  he 
had  won  his  way  back  to  the  heart  of  St  Paul.  So 
he  writes  a  Gospel  for  Gentiles  as  much  as  for 
Jews,  and  the  Jesus  whom  he  portrays  is  the 
Christ  of  the  larger  hope  ;  and  it  is  only  his  simple 
adherence  to  the  facts  as  he  had  gathered  Ihcm 
that  keeps  him  true  in  his  historic  perspective 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible     57 

and  prevents  him  from  colouring  his  whole  por- 
trait out  of  the  resources  of  later  experience. 
As  it  is,  he  has  given  us  a  Life  which  we  to-day 
can  recognize  as  truly  human,  while  we  know  just 
as  he  knew  that  it  was  the  Life  of  the  Incarnate 
Son  of  God.  He  does  not  say,  as  St  John  does 
say,  '  He  was  not  yet  glorified  '  :  but  the  distinc- 
tion is  there,  it  is  implicit,  though  he  does  not  put 
it  into  words.  His  care  is  to  be  true  to  what  was 
seen  and  felt  by  those  first  disciples  who  knew 
not  at  the  time  the  full  wonder  of  the  Master 
whom  they  followed. 

When  we  realize  the  limits  which  the  earliest 
evangelists  set  upon  themselves,  how  little  they 
intended  to  tell  us  of  all  that  as  members  of  the 
living  Church  they  had  come  to  know,  how  they 
concerned  themselves  only  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
as  He  was  seen  by  His  disciples  in  the  earthly 
period  of  His  ministry  ;  we  are  confirmed  in  our 
confidence  in  their  narrative,  we  recognize  more 
than  ever  its  sobriety  and  truthfulness.  If  we 
believe  as  they  believed,  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  our  Lord,  then  their  narrative 
is  intelligible  to  us  :  we  do  not  wish  to  minimize 
the  miraculous  element  which  seems  to  fit  in  so 
naturally  as  to  be  its  own  corroboration.  We  must 
indeed  wonder  that  a  human  life  could  be  lived 
with  such  supernatural  forces  at  its  free  disposal, 
and  not  be  utterly  demoralized  by  the  conscious- 


58     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

ness  of  limitless  powers.  They  were  not  disturbed 
in  writing  by  this  thought,  because  they  knew 
who  He  was  :  we  can  read  what  they  wrote,  won- 
dering but  not  distrustful,  just  in  so  far  as  we 
share  their  knowledge  of  who  He  was. 

But  if  we  are  to  isolate  the  synoptic  Gospels 
and  try  to  read  them  as  if  they  were  a  history  in 
themselves,  apart  from  the  issue  of  that  history 
which  is  found  in  the  experience  of  the  early 
Church  ;  if  we  reduce  the  central  Figure  to  a 
religious  genius  springing  out  of  later  Judaism, 
round  whom  a  mythology  and  a  theology  quickly 
grew,  but  who  was  in  sober  fact  a  prophetic 
reformer  quickened  by  an  apocalyptic  hope,  and 
a  religious  teacher  proclaiming  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  all  men — then  we 
are  making  for  ourselves  a  problem  which  wc 
shall  never  solve. 

For  what,  after  all,  was  the  Christianity  that 
conquered  the  world  ?  Was  it  the  religious  and 
moral  teaching  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
enforced  by  the  example  of  a  great  martyr's 
death  ?  Or  was  it  the  Christianity  of  St  Paul— 
the  redemptive  power  of  Christ  crucified  and 
risen  and  ascended,  the  mission  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  expectation  of  judgment  to  come  and 
the  hope  of  eternal  life  ?  There  is  no  doubt 
about  the  answer.  The  more  elaborate  thoughts 
of  St.  Paul  did  not  indeed  fuid  a  response  for 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bihle     59 

many  generations  ;  but  his  central  beliefs,  which 
he  shared  with  all  the  Christian  teachers  of  the 
first  age,  the  belief  in  the  risen  and  glorified  Son 
of  God,  the  belief  that  He  came  down  from 
heaven  and  was  made  man  for  us  men  and  our 
salvation,  and  that  He  was  crucified  also  for  us, 
the  belief  that  He  was  perpetually  at  work  in  the 
Church  and  would  come  again  to  judge  the  world 
— that  was  the  Christianity  of  the  whole  of  the 
early  Church,  and  that  was  the  Christianity— 
and  not  any  refined  philosophy  of  Providence  or 
elevated  system  of  morals— which  conquered  the 
world  and  actually  set  the  Cross  of  Christ  on  the 
standards  of  Rome. 

Lastly,  those  who  persist  in  separating  the  Jesus 
of  the  Gospels  from  the  Christ  of  St  Paul  are 
creating  for  themselves  two  insoluble  problems 
at  once.  Not  only  does  '  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels  ' 
become  so  unintelligible  that  little  by  little  every 
historic  trait  is  eliminated,  and  men  doubt  at  last 
if  any  historical  Jesus  ever  existed  at  all — for, 
incredible  as  it  sounds,  that  is  a  view  which  is 
said  to  be  gaining  ground  :  but  also  '  the  Christ 
of  St  Paul '  has  to  be  somehow  accounted  for 
and  explained.  This  last  is  the  fascinating  task 
of  some  highly  trained  and  eager  investigators 
in  the  German  universities  at  this  moment. 
They  are  on  the  road  to  discover  in  the  Greek 
mysteries,   and  the   philosophical  exposition  of 


60     Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible 

them  in  Hermetic  writings  and  magical  papyri, 
a  whole  world  of  pre-Christian  thought  which 
penetrated  the  later  Judaism  and  produced  the 
sacramental  teaching  of  St  Paul  and  his  mystical 
conception  of  the  Second  Man  from  heaven.  If 
any  of  you  has  studied  lleitzenstein,  and  gone 
beneath  the  surface  of  his  quotations  and  analysed 
the  materials  from  which  they  are  drawn,  he  will 
know  how  eager  is  the  search  and  how  entirely 
unconvincing  the  result.  But  for  the  moment 
Rcitzenstein  is  a  name  to  conjure  with. 

Such  work  must  indeed  be  done,  if  only  to 
exhaust  the  possibilities  of  explanation.  Hope 
lies  for  the  future  of  historical  theology  in  the 
ultimate  recognition  of  the  impossibility  of  solv- 
ing the  one  great  problem  without  the  other. 
The  practical  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the 
present  confusions  is  this  :  If  we  read  the  great 
historical  documents  of  our  Faith  in  the  order  in 
which  they  were  written — first  the  Epistles  of 
St  Paul  and  next  the  synoptic  Gosjiels,  we  receive 
an  impression  of  unity.  We  wonder  at  both,  for 
both  involve  mystery  beyond  our  comprehension  ; 
but  the  marvel  of  the  one  is  in  harmony  with  the 
marvel  of  the  other.  In  both  alike  history  is  all 
the  while  offering  to  us  something  more  than 
history  can  by  itself  explain.  But  that  something 
more  is  just  the  secret  of  the  life  of  the  Christian 
Church  throughout  the  centuries.    And  that  life 


Thoughts  for  Teachers  of  the  Bible    61 

is  itself  a  fact  to  be  accounted  for  :  its  process 
belongs  to  history  to  trace  and  attest,  if  not  to 
explain  :  and  the  first  stage  of  the  process  is 
what  we  mean  when  we  speak  of  the  Christ  of 
History. 


PRINTED    BV 
WILLIAM    BRENDON    AND    SON, 
PLYMOUTH 


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